Tag: Memphis City Council

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Flyer Flashback News

Texting While Driving Remains a Problem Despite Law

CREDIT: Forestpath | Dreamstime.com

In July 2009, a law prohibiting texting while driving went into effect in Tennessee. The law’s passage was profiled in the July 2009 Flyer article, “Driving While Intexticated,” by Bianca Phillips.

Although the state law was in effect, a local ordinance hadn’t been passed by Memphis City Council at the time the story was published. It did, however, pass a couple months later. Sponsored by City Councilman Jim Strickland, the ordinance went into effect September 2009.

Under the law, a person is prohibited from texting while operating a motor vehicle. And anyone who is caught in violation of the law can receive a maximum fine of $50. The violation is a Class C misdemeanor and doesn’t appear on a person’s driving record.

Sgt. Michael Pope of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department’s Reduce Impaired and Distracted Driving Unit said texting while driving is “a growing problem.”

Forestpath | Dreamstime.com

“The trends in Memphis statistics have shown that DUI fatalities have gone down and a great increase of people who are actually killed texting and driving,” Pope said.

Distracted driving is the number-one killer of teenagers in the nation. According to the Tennessee Department of Safety, in 2013, there were more than 5,000 accidents involving distracted drivers and only about 730 accidents involving drunken drivers in Shelby County.

Similar to drunken drivers, law enforcement looks for signs like swerving, constant acceleration and braking, and other moving violations to help determine if a person is texting while driving. An officer normally follows the driver for a couple minutes to see if the erratic behavior continues and scopes the activity inside of their vehicle.

“The first indicator is when we see someone holding their cell phone up,” Pope said. “We can see through the side view mirrors or rearview mirrors [or we] can see the electronic device being illuminated. Once we see a person with the actual device, it gives us the probable cause to stop their vehicle.”

Seth Abrutyn is a Memphis driver who supports the ban on texting while driving. He thinks by prohibiting the activity, streets will become safer.

“Banning it reduces the number of people doing it and makes people more wary. And it increases revenue for the police department and city,” said Abrutyn, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Memphis. “Let’s face it: Memphians are terrible drivers. Everyone has witnessed the guy or girl in the far left lane make a right turn across three lanes without any warning and very rapidly. So, anything that helps the rest of us is a good thing.”

Pope agrees with Abrutyn. By penalizing people for texting while driving, he thinks accidents will be lessened and more lives will be saved.

“A lot of people know that we’re out looking now, so they’re starting to obey the laws and put their phones away,” Pope said. “We do a lot of campaigns in schools for teenagers and tell them not to text and drive. If somebody is texting you while driving, just put the phone away, because your response is not that important. You can call that person when you get to a place where you can park your car. And be mindful that your texting and driving not only puts your life in danger, but the lives of other citizens in danger. It’s a crucial thing that we all need to be mindful of. Just don’t text and drive.”

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News The Fly-By

Park Name Change Lawsuit Ruling Expected Soon

CREDIT: Toby Sells

A ruling is expected any day now in a lawsuit that will determine the names of three Memphis parks that were changed a year ago in a controversial move by the Memphis City Council that drew emotional debate, criticism, and a visit by the Ku Klux Klan.

The council approved a resolution in February 2013 to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest Park to Health Sciences Park, Jefferson Davis Park to Mississippi River Park, and Confederate Park to Memphis Park. 

Some residents and a group called Citizens to Save Our Parks filed a lawsuit in May 2013 to block the new names claiming “it is for the benefit of public interest and welfare that these parks retain their historic and true name.” 

Allan Wade, the City Council’s attorney, moved immediately to dismiss the suit and has done so in court motions several times over the past year as the legal action has played out. He claims the groups don’t have legal standing to trump the council’s action. 

Toby Sells

A place holder sign at the former Jefferson Davis Park

“They argue that they have passionate interest in the parks, and they go out there and clean the parks up and that they had all these agreements,” Wade said. “But standing is based upon injury. In the absence of a recognizable injury, you don’t really have any different standing than anybody else who is interested in a park or street or a building or anything else.”

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Douglas E. Jones of the Nashville firm Schulman, Leroy, and Jones, has countered those moves by amending their original suit, and added new plaintiffs like the Memphis chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

Jones said his clients do have legal standing, according to a recent court motion. The SCV group installed Civil War replica cannons in all three parks at a cost of $75,000. Also, he said the SCV lost about $56,000 in revenue when the national SCV organization removed Memphis from its list of possible locations for its national convention in 2016. 

“Clearly, [the national and local SCV groups] have standing because both have suffered a special injury that was casually connected to the [city’s] actions,” the motions said. “[The groups] have suffered a distinct and palpable injury because they funded commemorative markers and statues in the parks to preserve history, they suffered a financial loss due to the parks’ names being changed, and are actively involved in the upkeep of and maintenance of the parks.” 

Wade said he expects the ruling soon because Chancellor Kenny W. Armstrong, the judge presiding over the suit in Shelby County Chancery Court, will take the bench at the Tennessee Court of Appeals on September 1st. The ruling could come “any day now,” he said, but couldn’t say exactly when because “courts do what they do.”

Should the suit be dismissed, the names that remain for the parks will be the purposefully bland, place-holding names the council approved to get ahead of a state law that would have banned the name changes. 

The council assembled and convened a committee of Memphis citizens to come up with new names for the parks. That committee’s meetings hummed with racial tension, but the members agreed to change Nathan Bedford Forrest Park to Civil War Memorial Park, Confederate Park to Promenade Park, and Jefferson Davis Park to Harbor Park. City Councilmember Bill Boyd oversaw those meetings as the chairman of the council’s parks committee.

“I was opposed to [changing the names], and I think we should just leave history as it is and move on,” Boyd said this last week.

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News The Fly-By

A Look at Upcoming Issues on the Memphis City Council Calendar

Passage of the city’s budget dominated most of the Memphis City Council’s time and attention in the past few weeks, which means decisions on other issues we’ve been following have been delayed. But those issues will find their way back on the council’s agenda in the next few weeks. Here’s what’s coming up:

• Overton-Square parking permits The final vote on whether or not to create the special parking zone and issue the permits was delayed until the council’s next regular meeting on Tuesday, July 15th.

That one-year pilot plan would allow Square-area residents to buy an annual parking permit for $50. Residents could also buy up to four visitor permits for $25 each. The permits would allow them exclusive rights to park in spots on city streets that are currently open to the general public. Those spots would only be within a defined parking district.

If the program is approved by the council, petitions will be sent to residents in the parking permit district. Should enough residents on any one street sign the city’s petition, their street could become part of the parking district. 

So far, that district is limited to an area bound by Cox on the east, Morrison on the west, Union on the south, and Jefferson on the north. A section of Lee Place North is also included. Neighbors within that area can determine whether or not they want their street in the program.  

City of Memphis Engineering Director John Cameron said if a street is approved for the program, signs would be erected there, residents and permitted visitors would get their permit (a sticker or a hang tag), and anyone who parks there without a permit would be ticketed. 

• Sidewalk repairs

At the beginning of July, councilmembers extended by two months a moratorium on forcing Memphis residents to repair sidewalks in front of their properties. 

Repair notices began going out to numerous Memphis homeowners at the beginning of the year, and many of those people got a summons to appear in Judge Larry Potter’s environmental court. Those notices were sent, according to city engineer John Cameron, after the city saw a spike in sidewalk-related lawsuits in 2013. 

But many of the homeowners complained, noting they did not have the financial means to pay for sidewalk repairs that could cost between $200 and $1,500. 

George Little, the city’s chief administrative officer, said he was ready to propose a repair hardship program at the beginning of the month. But councilmembers delayed the presentation to focus on budget issues.

• Cooper-Young parking garage Councilmember Janis Fullilove proposed adding $3.6 million to the city’s budget for next year for what could be a $4 million project.

But she pulled her proposal during budget negotiations after Councilmember Kemp Conrad pushed a new rule that forced councilmembers to find money in the budget for any extra projects they propose.

The proposed garage would have two floors of parking for about 150 to 250 vehicles and be built on the corner of Meda and Young. The ground floor would be reserved for commercial space.

The proposal is slated to come before the council during their next regular meeting on Tuesday, July 15th.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: Split the Baby

I got several calls from Memphis Police and Fire Department employees this week. They were all angry about the proposed cuts and changes to their pension and health-care plans and wanted the Flyer to “tell the truth” about the situation.

The core truth is that the city — as mandated by the state — needs to find a way to pay down its pension obligations in five years. It can do this by cutting costs, raising revenues (taxes), or a combination of the two.

The proposal at hand would turn the current guaranteed pension plan for city employees into a 401k plan. It would also reduce benefits and/or raise the costs of health care for current employees and retirees.

The Memphis City Council majority is determined not to raise property taxes, come hell or high water, the stated rationale being that it will motivate people to leave Memphis. The 6,000 police and fire personnel and other city employees contend that they are being asked to carry the entire burden of fixing the budget mess for the rest of us.

The council has gotten support for its “no new taxes” position from the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce (COC), which launched a campaign against any tax hike. A counter-campaign has sprung up, urging citizens not to patronize businesses that are COC members.

And speaking of hell and high water… one fireman I spoke to alluded to certain “measures” that could be taken to demonstrate how important his department is to the city. He was referencing the rumors that have been circulating for a week or so about a “sick-out” over the Fourth of July weekend.

A sick-out of fire and police personnel on a holiday weekend filled with fireworks and massive downtown crowds would be a PR disaster for both departments, in my opinion, and would only harden the views on both sides of the issue. Especially, if there were a fire or a crime that caused the loss of life due to a lack of response.

That said, taking away promised health benefits, especially from retirees on a fixed pension is just wrong. And remember, these employees don’t get Social Security, so their pension is it when it comes to supporting themselves in their old age.

I’m quite obviously not an expert in city finances, and Lord knows the city has spent enough on consultants and experts to cover my retirement quite nicely. But surely there is a baby to be split here somewhere. A small tax increase isn’t going to send people fleeing en masse. And the switch to a 401k plan isn’t going be the end of the world for city employees.

We need to keep and attract highly qualified police and fire department personnel. A fear of not being safe will send as many people fleeing the city as a tax increase will. It’s time to make a deal — before things get even hotter.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

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News The Fly-By

Memphis Police and Fire Consider Moving Offices

CREDIT: Toby Sells

The Memphis Police Department (MPD) headquarters is “crowded and costly.” The Memphis Division of Fire Services headquarters has a nice river view and is “not the highest and best use of the property.” The two departments could cut costs for taxpayers by moving in together and sharing some back-office staffers. 

Toby Sells

Those ideas come from the city’s five-year strategic management plan published in January by the PFM Group consultants. The real estate ideas have come back into focus recently, as the Memphis City Council considers a deal to take over the Donnelly J. Hill State Office Building.

The building is worth about about $2.4 million, and the state would hand over its title to the city for the use of 400 parking spots in the Peabody Place garage for the next 15 years.

The city now has eight leases for office space around town. It pays about $3 million each year in rent to provide office space for about 460 employees. Real estate consultants have told councilmembers they could consolidate many of these offices into the Donnelly building on Civic Plaza, including the Memphis Housing Authority, Housing and Community Development, and Information Technology. 

But much of the conversation on the state building has at least touched on moving MPD. The department is now housed on three floors of the Shelby County Criminal Justice Complex, more commonly known as 201 Poplar. MPD moved there in 1982 but quickly outgrew it. Complaints about space constraints have come from former police directors James Bolden and Larry Godwin and current director Toney Armstrong.     

“Honestly, I think we have outgrown 201 Poplar,” Armstrong told councilmembers in budget discussions in 2012. “We have been able to grow at the uniform patrol level but not at the investigative level, simply because we don’t have the space for it.”

The cost to rent the currently cramped space is $1.4 million per year. That’s way too high, according to the consultant’s five-year plan. At the end of 2012, the average rate for Class A office space — the very best office space — in downtown Memphis was $16.75 per square foot, according to the city’s consultants. Taxpayers are leasing the MPD space in 201 Poplar for about $17.70 per square foot. 

The fire department has largely been left out of the recent conversations about office moves and consolidation, but the PFM report said its Front Street location is “not ideal” and is in “what could be a prime location for development.” 

The five-year plan said that Memphis police and fire should consolidate some of their office functions, and even communications, to save money. And, it said, sharing a physical location would help do just that.

But the Donnelley building wasn’t on the table in January when the five-year plan was published. Instead, the plan said the city should renovate the old police headquarters at 128 Adams, which has been vacant for the past 30 years. 

The renovation price tag of about $30 million puts the project out of reach, the city’s Chief Administrative Officer George Little has said in past budget discussions.

Consultants said the cost would be offset by eliminating rents in other places or could be paid from the sale of the fire department headquarters on Front Street. Or, the report, said 128 Adams could be sold to a private developer.

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News The Fly-By

Sidewalk Struggle

The Memphis City Council approved a two-month moratorium forcing sidewalk repairs at the beginning of May. In the meantime, attorneys are drafting new rules that may help some property owners fix their sidewalks without hefty price tags or getting hauled into court.

Sidewalk repair is the responsibility of Memphis property owners. That fact is thanks to a city law passed in 1967 that says owners of property abutting any public street are “required to provide and maintain adjacent to his or her property a sidewalk.”      

Property owners own the land under the sidewalk. But the city has a right to order a sidewalk be built on top of it and that it be maintained at the owner’s expense.

Furthermore, the city has a right to order that sidewalk be kept clean of mud, weeds, grass, ice, snow, foliage, and tree limbs, that the sidewalk not become slippery, and even when and how sidewalks are to be swept (never between 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. and done “carefully”).

City engineer John Cameron said the city does have a sidewalk inspector, but he said his office isn’t actively patrolling for bad sidewalks. They come to the city’s attention mainly through the Mayor’s Citizen Service Center via the 311 hotline. If the city knows about a bad sidewalk but doesn’t act on it, Cameron said, then the city becomes legally liable for accidents that may occur on the sidewalk.

“If property owners don’t respond to our notice to fix the sidewalk, the city will have a contractor do the work,” Cameron said. “Those costs will be documented and will be assessed as a lien on the property.”

Those costs can range from $200 to more than $1,500, depending on the size of the sidewalk and the extent of the damage. 

The city saw a spike in sidewalk-related lawsuits last year, Cameron said, and began issuing more notices at the beginning of this year. Those who didn’t respond or couldn’t pay were sued and ordered to appear in environmental court. The city council was then “inundated” with calls from angry property owners, according to their resolution to delay further notices. 

“We want the statue repealed. Period,” Memphis resident Jose Hill said to the council in a meeting last month. “People jaywalk, and I don’t see us getting tickets for that. People litter, and I don’t see us getting tickets for that. Now all of a sudden you want to come to people who have owned homes for 30 to 40 years and tell us you’re going to put a lien on our house? No, sir.” 

A new sidewalk ordinance expected next month will likely make exceptions for property owners with financial hardships.

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News The Fly-By

Parking Pinch

Funding for a new parking garage in Cooper-Young is again before the Memphis City Council with familiar arguments and familiar advocates. And the proposal comes as the council debates a familiarly tight city budget.

The garage was first proposed to the council last year, but funding was not approved. Now, Councilmember Janis Fullilove has put the issue forward again. Last week, she moved to add $3.4 million for the project to the city budget next year, noting that “Cooper-Young is a very booming area” that attracts tourists from across the country and residents from all over the region. 

“[Cooper-Young] is a meeting point of Orange Mound and the Glenview area and, of course, Midtown, so this is a citywide kind of project,” Fullilove said. “If we’re lucky, we could get some [tourist development zone] money from Nashville. But if we don’t, we need to put this in the budget and start planning this.”

A vote on the matter was delayed for two weeks. The council passed a resolution from Councilmember Kemp Conrad that mandates money for new projects be found in budget cuts or created with a tax rate hike. Fullilove said she’d bring a funding proposal back to the council in its regular meeting on Tuesday, June 17th.

The proposed garage would have two floors of parking for about 150 to 250 vehicles and be built on the corner of Meda and Young. The ground floor would be reserved for commercial space. Architects from Pensacola, Florida-based Structured Parking Solutions said they designed the building to fit in with the neighborhood.  

The Cooper-Young Business Association (CYBA) has been out front in support of the garage project for the past four years. Representatives from the group have led community discussions, lobbied leaders, and formally presented the plan to (and requested funding from) the city council last year.

CYBA Director Tamara Cook said the district has 95 on-street parking spaces and 366 spaces in private lots. The area’s 187 businesses (21 of them restaurants) employ more than 1,150 people, which alone would use up all the parking spots. But add in the 40,000 to 50,000 people who visit Cooper-Young each week, and Cook said the neighborhood is in a parking pinch.

“The Cooper Young Historic District generates over $12 million in sales tax revenue annually,” Cook said. “Now is the time [for the garage] because we do not want our historic district business owners to suffer by not having adequate parking for our patrons.”

A survey last year from the Cooper-Young Community Association found that 75 percent of respondents said parking was a problem. Most said a garage was the best option, but the plan has long had opposition from those who think a garage would kill the neighborhood’s vibe. A Facebook group called “Keep Cooper-Young Walkable” was launched this week.

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News The Fly-By

Critics Move to Block Overton Square Permit Parking Plan

Opposition has surfaced and is growing against a plan before the Memphis City Council that would allow exclusive parking on some streets around Overton Square for residents living around the revitalized entertainment district.

That one-year pilot plan would allow Square-area residents to buy an annual parking permit for $50. Residents could also buy up to four visitor permits for $25 each. The permits would allow them exclusive rights to park in spots on city streets that are currently open to the general public. Those spots would only be within a defined parking district.    

The plan is moving through the council’s legislative process now and got the first of three needed approvals during last week’s council meeting. Should the ordinance face no big hurdles in the council process, it could become law during the council’s meeting on Tuesday, June 17th.

But a change.org petition against the idea began two weeks ago by resident Gene Elliott, who said “residents should not have to pay to park in front of their own property.” Elliott said if the ordinance is passed, residents and their guests would have to opt into the permit program and pay the $50 or risk being ticketed. 

“Memphis already has an extremely high property tax rate. This permit will only add to the burden of local residents and businesses,” said Elliott’s petition. “Residents should not have to pay to park in their own neighborhood!”

The petition had 106 signatures at press time. Comments on the petition echoed Elliott’s sentiments on the extra financial burden the permits would bring and the adverse effects they’d have on tourism, businesses, and residents. While that petition is the most formal opposition to the plan, discussion on the matter has also filled comment threads on Facebook and local media websites.   

Council Chairman Jim Strickland brought the parking-permit ordinance to the council. He said he’s aware of the opposition to the plan and met with several businesses and residents in the area last week to try to resolve some issues.

“There’s just misinformation out there,” Strickland said. “One of the points is: ‘How dare you charge people to park on their own streets?’ First, it’s the residents who wanted the program. It was not originated for the city to make money. I’m only pursuing it because the people living there asked for it.”

The cost of the permits only covers the cost of administering the permit program, Strickland said. 

If the program is approved by the council, petitions will be sent to residents in the parking permit district. Should enough residents on any one street sign the city’s petition, their street could become part of the parking district. 

So far, that district is limited to an area bound by Cox Street on the east, Morrison Street on the west, Union Avenue on the south, and Jefferson Avenue on the north. A section of Lee Place North is also included. Neighbors within that area can determine whether or not they want their street in the program.  

City of Memphis Engineering Director John Cameron said if a street is approved for the program, signs would be erected there, residents and permitted visitors would get their permit (a sticker or a hang tag), and anyone who parks there without a permit would be ticketed.   

The council will likely discuss the matter during their next committee session on June 3rd. 

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News The Fly-By

Bridge Project Fights For Funding

A bicycle and pedestrian project that would connect Tennessee and Arkansas has hit a speed bump.

The Downtown Memphis Commission is asking the city to invest $2 million toward the Harahan Bridge Project, which if fully funded, would connect downtown Memphis to downtown West Memphis over the Harahan Bridge. But Memphis City Council Chairman Jim Strickland wants that money to be used for basic city services, such as street repaving, instead.

Right now, the cost for the Harahan Bridge Project, also known as the Main to Main Multi Modal Connector Project, is still undetermined while the organizations wait for bids, which are supposed to come in during the summer. While project leaders are waiting for a more cost-effective design, the current estimate of the project sits around $30 million.

Harahan Bridge Project

Almost $15 million has been approved from federal funds with the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (or TIGER IV) program. The project also has $2 million funded from the private sector, while $3.8 million has been dedicated from Arkansas and Tennessee government agencies for their respective sides of the project. Shelby County has committed $1 million to the project, and the city of Memphis contributed $500,000 early on. But the Memphis City Council is still debating whether the city will fund the additional $2 million.

“If we don’t get the funding for the project, we won’t start the project,” said Paul Morris, president of the Downtown Memphis Commission. “The mayor made that very clear. No loans, cash secured.”

The one-mile bridge currently only runs freight along its tracks, but a multi-purpose path would be placed next to it, utilizing the existing “wagonway” structure that was used in the early 20th century.

Morris said the project is about recycling, not starting anew, and maintaining what the city already has.

“We’ve been searching as an organization for years for funding to do basic things like fix the sidewalks, curbs, and gutters,” Morris said. “Right now, if you walk along the Main Street Mall, you have boards covering drainage ditches that don’t work. It’s embarrassing. For years, the city has never been able to prioritize that because of the lack of funding and all the budget problems we have.”

Strickland said because the city is in a “budget crisis,” Memphis needs to make tough decisions.

“A lot of good things, in my opinion, should not get funded. We need fewer big projects because we can’t afford them,” Strickland said. “A couple of years ago, when we appropriated [around] $500,000 for the Harahan Bridge, we were told that’s all that we would need, and then they come with a request for $2 million.”

According to Strickland, the money being requested for the project could go instead toward other city services.

“It would be a wonderful amenity to have, but we have some real budget problems,” Strickland said. “When you don’t have enough money to do everything, you have to prioritize. To me, repaving is an absolute need. In our operating budget, we’re $15 million per year in debt on our pensions. We can’t pay for testing all the rape kits. Both of which are needs.”

Strickland made a motion in last week’s council meeting to divert the $2 million funding for the Harahan Bridge Project and put it toward street repaving, but Mayor A C Wharton asked to give a presentation about the project during the next city council session.

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News The Fly-By

Memphis Police Director To Re-Design the Department

Many were surprised to learn last week that efforts are under way to “redesign” the Memphis Police Department (MPD).

Police Director Toney Armstrong delivered the news in a Memphis City Council budget hearing in his standard, flat, professional monotone that made the announcement seem expected, though many said it was the first they’d heard of the project.

The crux of the announcement was that the MPD’s proposed budget for next year includes about 188 fewer police officers than it had last year. The current budget allows Armstrong to have as many as 2,470 officers.

But it’s more than simply the number of officers influencing Armstrong’s decision to redesign the department. Armstrong had been directed by the city’s Chief Administrative Officer, George Little, to revise the department’s mission statement — that is, change what kind of services the MPD provides and how it delivers those services. The directive sprang from tight financial times for city leaders who are pressured to maintain services to taxpayers, which get more expensive every year, and pay at least $15 million more next year into the city’s ailing pension fund.   

“We’re at a time of reckoning when we need to decide what level of service we can afford to provide,” Little said Tuesday.

Armstrong said the redesign process is moving ahead, but it is far from complete, and he prompted city council members for guidance. 

“We are in the process of essentially designing a new police department,” Armstrong said. “As the police department stands now, we have [a complement of] 2,470 officers. If we scale back to 2,282 as we’ve proposed in this budget, there will be a level of services we will not be able to perform. We have to make decisions on what to do and what not to do.”

Fewer officers would likely come with a reduced mission. For example, the MPD could choose not to respond to burglar alarms or to fender benders. These ideas have been discussed in the past but were formalized in the city’s five-year strategic plan from consulting firm The PFM Group.

That study proposed a raft of changes that included a reduced list of services from the MPD, lowering pay for some police positions, hiring civilians to do office work that is currently performed by higher-wage sworn officers, cutting back on pay for college incentives and length of service, and cutting some holidays and sick days. 

Perhaps the biggest move suggested by PFM is to consolidate the office and dispatch services of the MPD and the Memphis Fire Department (MFD). The study said as many as 130 governments have consolidated police and fire to some degree. Some have even cross-trained police officers and firefighters to do both jobs, it said. 

But the study suggested the MPD and the MFD maintain independence but share back-office support and dispatchers. Doing so would save $7.6 million over five years with a reduction of 35 employees.  

Michael Williams, president of the Memphis Police Association, said he read PFM’s report but didn’t know until Armstrong said it last week that the MPD was up for a redesign.

“The director’s got to do what the director’s got to do,” Williams said. “But what I heard him say to the council was, actually, the council has to decide what level of service do they want to provide to the citizens. If they want a full-service department, they have to increase the complement. If they do not, then the citizens have to be told and have to understand that they aren’t going to receive the same services they’re used to.”

• MPD calls 2012 – 1,637,200

• Radio dispatcher salary – $50,345 (34 percent higher than peer cities)

• MPD portion of city’s 2013 budget – 36.6 percent

• MPD/MFD holiday pay 2013 – $11.8 million

• MPD employees – increased by 314 from 2008-2013

Source: PFM Group